Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates in general to a method for executing an imaging data request from a mobile device to an image processing apparatus using a public and private network, and more particularly, to a mobile printing application allowing a user of a mobile device to direct a print request to a desired image processing apparatus without configuring network settings.
Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices are increasingly being used for transferring print or scan jobs to the same network image processing apparatuses that desktop computers can access. These mobile devices include by way of example smartphones, computing tablets, laptops or cameras that are often used to store images and documents. It may be preferable to execute an imaging data request such as printing or scanning directly from the mobile device instead of executing the imaging request from a desktop.
In a workplace environment a plurality of image processing apparatuses such as a multifunction peripheral (MFP), printer, scanner, copier and facsimile are typically connected to a private network. It is useful to provide access to a user for executing an imaging data request from the mobile device to the plurality of image processing apparatuses on the private network. However, in the application of exchanging data, images, documents, or information with an image processing apparatus, mobile devices generally have no secured association with the domain in which the image processing apparatus is located. The lack of secured association between the mobile device and the image processing apparatus makes it difficult to control access to the image processing apparatus in an environment where security and tracking of device resource usage are required.
There exist mobile print and scanning solutions for allowing mobile devices to print and scan from an image processing apparatus on a private network. One such solution allows mobile users to connect directly to an image processing apparatus on the network, allowing the user to print and scan from the mobile devices. However, there exist a few issues with the current printing solutions. One such issue includes requiring additional configuration steps by the user on the mobile device in order to enable a direct connection from the mobile device to an image processing apparatus the user would like to use for printing or scanning. For example, a user's mobile device may be required to join the same network in which the image processing apparatus is connected to. This may require the user to connect to a Wi-Fi network, but such a network may not always be available in an office environment. Even if such a network is available, the user must take the additional step of changing the network settings associated with the user's mobile device every time the user would like to execute an imaging data request.
Alternatively, the image processing apparatuses may be exposed to the public internet. However, this presents a security risk, as many of these image processing apparatuses, though possessing network capabilities are not designed to be secure in a public internet environment. The image processing apparatuses embedded operating systems may contain vulnerabilities that could compromise an entire corporate network.
Another solution utilizes cloud computing that allow the use of e-mail to send files from a mobile device to a target image processing apparatus such as a printing device. However, using an e-mail system to relay files to and from an image processing apparatus may also cause unwanted issues. For example, e-mail is not always a reliable delivery system, and some messages may be lost. Additionally, if image processing apparatuses are exposed over an e-mail system, there is a risk of unauthorized messages from spammers being sent to the connected image processing apparatuses, causing them to print erroneously, and waste consumable resources such as paper and toner. Thus, there is a need in the art for a method of transferring imaging data requests from a mobile device to a plurality of image processing apparatuses on a private network without requiring a user of the mobile device to join the private network.